Creating an Insectary

On the day after my 18th Birthday, my mother has given me a nice new book about attracting pollinators. Name of the book is The Xerces Society Guide to Attracting Native Pollinators. On the first night of skimming the book, I learn many new things about attracting native bees, wasps and flies as well as honeybees, butterflies and other beneficial insects. I have been in to bees and wasps since I was four year old, but I was also scared of them. My backyard habitat and vegetable garden is filled with bamboo mason bee houses, an carpenter bee fence, paper wasp shelves and even patches of soil for ground nesting bees. I also took a local beekeeping class in 2011 and plan to keep honeybees on my yard.

 A good bee farm or insectary should have:

• Variety of native and ornamental plants, trees and shrubs
• A good water source
• Bee, wasp housing, butterfly host plants and proper natural breeding habitat

If your yard or farm is short on bees or butterflies and your crops or pasture plants are not being pollinated there are some simple solutions to add bees to your area.

Set up an Bee Pasture.

A Bee Pasture is a patch of land filled wildflowers and flowering shrubs for bees and other pollinators. The best bee pastures should have several species of native wildflowers that bloom throughout the seasons, at least one specie of grass of sedge to out compete weeds and trees and proper nest sites. Bee pastures should be within 200 yards of the farm field, pasture, garden or orchard to ensure that the bees can reach the crops. Many species of bees don't travel more than a few hundred feet from the nest, while other bees like carpenter bees, bumble bees and honeybees can travel miles from their nests.

List of plants for a bee pasture

 Native Plants

Southern Crabapple

Parsley Leaved Hawthorn

American Plum

Carolina Rose

Eastern Redbud

Eastern Flowering Dogwood

Pink Azalea

Tulip Tree

Southern Magnolia
Red Bay

Sassafras

Blueberries (Especially Highbush blueberries and box huckleberries)  

Blackberries (native species like Black, Common, Allegheny, Apache blackberries and Dewberry)

Fox Grape

Herbaceous Plants

Asters including New England, Old Field, Common, Wood, Calico asters and Ironweeds

Thistles: including Yellow Thistle and Wild Lettuce

Goldenrods and Dogfennel especially for wasps and beetles

Blazing Stars 

Coneflowers (particularly Purple Coneflower, Prairie Coneflower and Black Eyed Susans)  

Blanket Flowers

Sunflowers (particularly Common, Prairie, Narrowleaf Sunflowers and Compass Flower

Salvias and Sages including Lyre Leaved Sage, Black and Blue Sage, Blue Sage, and Scarlet Sage 

Giant Hyssop

Blue Verbain

Rose Verbena

Field Mint and Bee Balms

Indigos

Milkweeds and dogbanes

Phloxes

Fennel and Golden Alexander

 Good Nonnative Plants for Bee Pastures 

Trees

Crape Myrtle

Pear

Figs

Apple

Indian Hawthorn

Asian Azaleas

Camellias

Plants

Assyliums

Common Yarrow

Dandelion

Bull Thistle

Canada Thistle

Prickly Sow Thistle

Hawkweed

French Marigolds

Mexican Marigolds

Cosmos

Mexican Sunflowers

Jerusalem Artichoke

Peppermint

Catnip

Cat Mint

Oregano

Russian Sage

Borage

Dill

Parsley

White Clover

Yellow Clover

Good Bee Houses

Bamboo rods or Hollow plant stalks  secured in a plastic container and mounted to a wall will attract nesting mason wasps, mason bees, leaf bees, and carder bees

Logs, Untreated Posts and old wooden fences make good Carpenter bee colonies, Mason, Resin, bees, mason wasps will move in to old Carpenter bee nests

Shelves provide nest sites for paper wasps and mudaubers that prey or garden pests

Plastic cans, coffee tins lined with cardboard and filled with cotton, moss or grass will attract bumble bees to nest. Place this and wasp platforms in wooded areas away from people or towards the back of your yard.

 

Great Backyard Bird Count 2-17-2-20-2012

2-11-2012
This is a rare shot of one of our smallest backyard birds, the Ruby Crowned Kinglet or Rubycrest.
Kinglets are fearless of people and are common during the winter but rarely hold still for a photo.
This bird was taken one week before the 2012 Bird Count  

I participate in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count each year. This survay is done by Cornell Labs during the second week in febuary to monitor the populations of birds in North America. I counted the birds in my yard during all four days but I also counted the birds at several locations around Wilmington. These locations include Airlie Gardens, Maides Park, Hugh's Mcrae Park. Some of the highlights from my bird count include an adult Bald Eagle at Airlie Gardens, a Merlin in my yard and the Eastern Towhee. All of the birds that I recorded are not rare species in North Carolina but several birds were of interest.

Bird list

My Backyard  6:45-8:00AM

2-17-2012

2 Red Bellied Woodpeckers

10 American Crows

2 Fish Crows

15 Carolina Chickadees

6 Tufted Titmice

4 Carolina Wrens

4 Eastern Bluebirds

24 Cedar Waxwings

18 Yellow Rumped Warblers

2 Pine Warblers

10 White Throated Sparrows

4 Cardinals

22 Red Winged Blackbirds

2 House Finches

2-18-2012

1 Merlin

1 Cooper's Hawk

2 Mourning Doves

2 Downy Woodpeckers

4 Red Bellied Woodpecker
12 Carolina Chickadees

4 Tufted Titmice

4 Carolina Wrens 

1 Ruby Crowned Kinglet 

4 Eastern Bluebird

20 American Robins

2 Mockingbirds

13 Cedar Waxwings 

4 Starlings 

25 Yellow Rumped Warblers 

4 Pine Warblers 

4 Cardinals 

1 Song Sparrow 

3 Field Sparrow

6 White Throated Sparrows 

12 Red Winged Blackbirds 

4 Common Grackles

10 Brown Headed Cowbird 

1 House Sparrow 

2-19-2012

1 Red Tailed Hawk

2 Mourning Doves

2 Downy Woodpeckers

4 Red Bellied Woodpecker

1 Pileated Woodpeckers
9 Carolina Chickadees

4 Tufted Titmice

4 Carolina Wrens 

1 Ruby Crowned Kinglet 

4 Eastern Bluebird

6 American Robins

1 Mockingbird

1 Brown Thrasher

25 Cedar Waxwings 

4 Starlings 

22 Yellow Rumped Warblers 

4 Pine Warblers 

8 Cardinals 

3 Field Sparrow

6 White Throated Sparrows 

12 Red Winged Blackbirds 

8 Common Grackles

4 House Finch

1 House Sparrow 

2-20-2012

1 Red Tailed Hawk

1 Cooper's Hawk

1 Mourning Doves

4 Red Bellied Woodpecker

9 Carolina Chickadees

4 Tufted Titmice

4 Carolina Wrens 

4 Eastern Bluebird

18 Cedar Waxwings 

2 Mockingbirds

4 Starlings 

25 Yellow Rumped Warblers 

4 Pine Warblers 

4 Cardinals 

6 White Throated Sparrows 

25  Red Winged Blackbirds 

4 Common Grackles

1 House Finch

Maides Park 2-17-2012 3:45 PM-4:00PM

12 American Crows

4 Carolina Chickadees

 1 Carolina Wren

1 Ruby Crowned Kinglet

Hugh McRae Park 2-17-2012

10 Candia Geese

3 Mallards

2 Feral Ducks

1 Double Crested Cormorant high

1 Red Bellied Woodpeckers

9 Brown Headed Nuthatches

6 Pine Warblers

1 Carolina Wren

1 European Starling high 

Airlie Garden's Audubon Trip 2-18-2012 8:30 AM-11:00AM

8 American Widgeons

1 Green Winged Teal 

4 Mute Swans 

42 Candia Geese 

4 Pied Billed Grebes  

1 Double Crested Cormorant

1 Great Blue Heron

3 Snowy Egrets

1 Great Egret

6 White Ibis

1 Laughing Gull 

3 Ring Billed Gulls 

2 Forester Terns  

1 Bald Eagle

4 Red Tailed Hawks

1 Cooper's Hawk 

4 Turkey Vultures

1 Mourning Dove

2 Red Bellied Woodpeckers

1 Northern Flicker

2 Carolina Chickadees

4 Tufted Titmice

1 Carolina Wren

1 Golden Crowned Kinglet

4 Ruby Crowned Kinglet

25 American Robin

1 Mockingbird  

14 Cedar Waxwings

8 Yellow Rumped Warblers

2 Cardinals

2 Red Winged Blackbirds

4 White Throated Sparrows

2 House Sparrows

Spring arrives

This is a video of Chris Geith's song So Many Nights from the Time less World Album
Courtesy of You Tube, This is one of the Contemporary Jazz songs that remind me of spring.

March is one of my favorite months of the year because it is the end of winter, and the beginning of spring bird migration. I also like this month because my sister both and my sister Vikki's was born in March. In March many plants begin to bloom and insects emerge. (my favorite creatures to watch). Some of the plants in bloom include Flowering Dogwoods, Red Buds, Cherry Laurels and Native Azalea, while violets and bluets carpet fields and forest under stories. One bird that arrives around my birthday is also one of my favorite birds, the Wood Thrush. This songbird arrives from South American around March 25 and breeds here until September 15. Spring brings warmer temperatures and colorful blooms but it also comes with pollen and violent thunderstorms. Spring is one of my worst times for allegories and hay fever with all of these trees in bloom. Even with that spring is still one of my favorite seasons of the year.